I’m sorry to disappoint you, in that this is a consumer motherboard. So yes, AMD PSP exists, no iLO.
However, that’s where the bad part ends.
Behold, what is in my opinion, the most server-like MicroATX board released to the consumers: the MSI PRO B550M-VC WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard/alternate link.
If you followed the link and read the specifications you would know exactly what I’m talking about, but for people who didn’t, here is the summary:
- 4 x16 ports (3 of them work at x1 speeds, the one closest to the CPU is
PCI Express 5.0 x16). - 8 SATA3 ports (people who wanted to build a NAS should be visibly salivating at this point).
Apart from that, there are 2 nice features that I would personally like to point out, as I look for these features in every board:
- 128GB of RAM supported (no ECC, and I suppose a lot of motherboards support it now, but nice to have).
- A
2230 E-keyslot.- I know a few of you might be wondering why I’m mentioning the slot used for a WiFi card in this post - I invite you to take a look at this.
- It’s a link to an Aliexpress item, so if you don’t want to click, here’s a short version: It’s an E-key to 2.5Gbe converter, using a
Realtek RTL8125Bchip. It’s amazing, I learnt about these adapters from a random Level1Techs video. I think a lot of people could use this.
- It’s a link to an Aliexpress item, so if you don’t want to click, here’s a short version: It’s an E-key to 2.5Gbe converter, using a
- I know a few of you might be wondering why I’m mentioning the slot used for a WiFi card in this post - I invite you to take a look at this.
And there you have it. If you’re building a system that requires heavy PCIe access and a lot of SATA3 storage, I think this is the best value you can find when purchasing new.
Cheers
What CPU you recommend to pair with the motherboard? Ideally something with low idle power consumption.
Unless you are adding a discrete GPU, your options are limited to APUs which only have two models in Zen 3: 5600G and 5700G.
You dont need a GPU for ssh or web services. Yeah you’d need one to set it up I guess. Actually idk it might depend on your bios but if your mobo is any good it should have an ignore GPU failure warning.
While it would work no doubt, I do not recommend it. It complicates management in case things go real astray especially nowadays most consumer motherboards do no expose RS232 or any serial port. It is also more flexible and convenient for homelab machines to have some sort of GPU capability.